I am a plastic surgeon in Little Rock, AR. I used to "suture for a living", I continue "to live to sew". These days most of my sewing is piecing quilts. I love the patterns and interplay of the fabric color. I would like to explore writing about medical/surgical topics as well as sewing/quilting topics. I will do my best to make sure both are represented accurately as I share with both colleagues and the general public.

Quilts of Valor

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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

It is my pleasure to bring you this week’s Grand Rounds. As I am sick of winter and looking forward to spring, I am going to sprinkle this edition with images of some beaches near the contributors. Enjoy!

Valentine’s Day is in less than one week. There are several “heart” related posts. Let’s begin with them.

Mr. Felton smiled and shook his head. "Seem like every generation get a little more chances. Here you are a doctor, teaching me about my heart." He looked me in my glassy eyes, warm and genuine. The tears pushed out onto my lashes as I drew in a deep breath. ……….

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Valentine’s Day may not be a happy one when illness enters into the couple relationship, things change, often drastically. If the demands of illness make it difficult for the partners to connect with and be supportive of each other, should they consider divorce? Barbara, In Sickness and In Health, discusses these changes in her post: Divorce and Chronic Illness: One Woman's Story.

Often a major part of a doctors job is making decisions –….. Often it's the decision of the patient and family, but needing guidance of the attending doctor, who is expected to know the best. When all goes down well – good. But what when the parties have a difference of opinion and some problems crops up. …..?

Following is one such is incident, which made me ponder – where do you draw the line – of who takes the blame? …….

…………..The clear implication was that our life events clearly impact our response to injury and disease in ways that remain unknown to us. But while we may not understand the mechanism, it is evident that all health care providers have to more closely attend to understanding the lives of our patients in order to administer to their medical needs. ……………

………….And therein lies the key – the divorcement of these crucial rite-of-passage rituals from the brutal practice of female genital mutilation. ……..

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Glenn Laffel, MD, Pizaazz,uses his post How the Brain Responds to Music to review a cool study by scientists at McGill about the neurological underpinnings of musical epiphanies. It includes an amazing YouTube video of Jascha Heifetz playing a Tchaikovsky violin concerto, but admitted in his email “I’m more partial to the Grateful Dead piece mentioned in the opening sentence!”

I have experience with this, from both sides. Both involve hand-washing. Still, a clean story.

Washing of hands is the right thing to do for health-care providers, between seeing patients, for infection control reasons. And, I’ve gotten ‘the letter’ from a VP charged with signing them, citing me for not washing my hands between patients.

Except, I did. This is the problem with observational medicine.

………………………….

We’ll use Grunt Doc’s post to move from the physical body to the policy/politics/economics of medicine.

It's easy to say that a few hundred dollars for a test (or a few thousand dollars if people opt to get multiple tests) is far less expensive than the cost of a heart attack. But ………. This exacerbates the problem of over-consumption of health care and rising health care costs.

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Philip Hickey, Behaviorism and Mental Health, discusses The Drugging of Children. He feels children with behavioral problems are increasingly being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with these children. They simply haven’t been adequately trained and disciplined.

Excellent! We need beach pics right now - looking forward to heading there myself in a week and a half. Gearing up for the next big storm here - got my car parked up at the bank, the kid's dad brought toboggans over tonight, and I've got a sitter lined up. Hope you stay warm and safe.

Looking forward to planning another day trip when the weather becomes more cooperative!

Disclaimer

My purpose in writing my blog is to attempt to provide good solid medical information on topics of my choosing. It is a way to educate myself, my colleagues, and the general public. References will be provided on medical posts, but not on opinion essays or poetry posts. An additional purpose is to share my interest in quilting topics, a way to show my human side.

Any medical information provided by this site is not a replacement for medical diagnosis, treatment, or professional medical advice. It should not be used to treat or diagnose any medical condition. Always seek professional medical consultation by a licensed physician for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions - please, do not ignore your doctor's medical advice based on information written by the author or commenters of this site. Please do not ask me for medical advice, but instead contact a healthcare provider in your area. Anything written about office/hospital situations/events are fictional examples to get a point across. No patient is/will ever be a specific patient (unless given written permission), but a fictional one. To know more about how I handle medical information about patients please link here. Unless, I am praising a colleague, even those will be fictional. Any similarities to you or people you know is purely coincidental. My husband and I, and our dogs are fair game.

In early 2009 I joined the Better Health Network. As part of that Network, I will occasionally be paid for my writing. Those posts will be clearly noted. I will strive to maintain my high ethical standards. If I add any advertising, it will be clearly marked as such.

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